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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 28, 1986 Page 17 Sisterhoods call for membership guidelines KIAMESHA LAKE, N Y.— Women’s League for Conserva tive Judaism has called upon the Movement’s Committee on Law and Standards to determine whether or not the non-Jewish woman in a mixed marriage can become a sisterhood member. At the biennial meeting of the Women’s League representing 200,000 members, a resolution was adopted saying, “We recog nize with concern the growing rate of mixed marriages and the resultingsituations that continue to arise across the country in our affiliated sisterhoods. “We move that the question of the role of sisterhood of the non- Jewish wife of a Jewish member of the synagogue be referred to the Committee of Law and Stand ards of the Rabbinical Assembly to explore all facets of the ques tion and establish standards and guidelines for the synagogue and its affiliated organizations.” At the same time. Women’s League called for the develop ment of an educational and cul tural outreach program to the non-Jewish woman partner in a mixed marriage. The resolution said: “We recognize the needs of non-Jewish women, married to Jewish men, whether affiliated or unaffiliated with a synagogue, who have expressed the desire to pursue Jewish aims and ideals. We wish to encourage their par ticipation in Jewish community life.” At present, the Rabbinical Assembly’s law committee has ruled that the 1,200 member Con servative rabbis should not accept mixed married couples as members into their congregation. However, no sanction process exists and there are some Conservative rabbis who have permitted mixed couples to become synagogue members. Rabbi Kassel Abelson of M in- neapolis, president of the Rab binical Assembly, in earlier re marks to the convention called for Conservative Judaism to establish guidelines'on how to deal with mixed married couples, and especially their children. “We must determine the entire question of mixed marriages, es tablishing programs in each con gregation which will deal with these questions and bring the family closer to Judaism and closer to the synagogue, so that children of all mixed marriages will be raised as Jews. And w here interest develops, because the family is warmly welcomed into the congregation and their prob lems sympathetically dealt with, we may discover that the non- Jewish spouse will, at some point, opt to study about Judaism and even to convert to Judaism.” Abelson indicated that many congregations in the Conserva tive movement are confronted throughout the year with such questions as: Should the children be allowed to be bar or bat mitzva or even to get married in the congregation? “There is scarcely a Jewish family in our congregations that has not been touched by this problem in the person of a child marrying out side of the faith,” he added. Phyllis Haas of Philadelphia, a past national vice president of Women’s League, agreed that dealing with non-Jewish spouses in a mixed marriage becomes a sensitive problem, which has been on the increase in’Conservative congregations over the past number of years. 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